Top Russian official outraged at restrictive US visa, cancels UN visit
Valentina Matviyenko, the chairperson of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament), has cancelled her trip to the United States, and will not attend Inter-Parliamentary Union events at the UN headquarters in New York next week. According to a statement released by Matviyenko, she made this decision because the US government issued her a limited visa.
Reports claim that the visa conditions limit Matviyenko’s trip to Manhattan only. Matviyenko, who has been targeted by US sanctions imposed by the US, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, said she finds the “degrading visa conditions” so unacceptable that it will be “impossible” for the Russian delegation to attend the events in New York.
“This US government decision is a crude violation of international law, of its own responsibilities before the international community; it raises doubts about the appropriateness of holding international events on the territory of the United States. We find it unacceptable,” reads the statement. Matviyenko also noted that the US government’s actions are aimed at limiting the free exchange of opinions.
Sanctions look like a sign of helplessness. They only reveal the failures of US policies that try to lay its own guilt for the situation in Ukraine on Russia. Even during the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the US upheld various ties and communication channels on different levels, including the public level.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union is holding a series of events at the UN headquarters in New York between August 31 and September 2. Matviyenko was to attend these events and to take part in a meeting of female chairmen on August 29 and 30.
Matviyenko is on a US sanctions list for her role in the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Individuals on this list face travel limitations to the United States.
In July, the Foreign Ministry of Finland refused entry to State Duma Chair Sergei Naryshkin and to several other Russia delegates who were due to attend an OSCE meeting in Helsinki. The delegates were included in EU sanctions lists.